One would think that training is a huge priority in the corporate world. But it can be difficult to justify spending money on training, especially in roles which are transient or not permanent. Many companies don’t make it a priority. This is despite the benefits that come with training and developing employees. Therefore employers often ask “What if I train them and they leave”?
The risks of untrained employees can include low production value and inefficiency, lost time and money. Mistakes from poor training take time and resources to rectify. They also lead to lost customers and generally unhappy employees.
360 Degree Feedback can be a powerful tool in your training toolkit as tool for training and developing your people – here are three steps to help you on your way.
Identify your goals
Before rushing ahead and running with your 360 programme, make sure you identify which areas are important to your organisation.
Defining objectives is essential to determining which competencies to measure, what questions to ask and who to involve.
Then ask yourself ‘how will we measure these competencies? And ‘are we going to evaluate only top level leaders or will we include managers and emerging leaders or perhaps the whole organisation should be put through the 360’.
Measure
Once you know what behaviours and skills you want to measure, set up your bespoke 360 on a flexible platform like Track360. This will allow you not only to measure what matters to your organisation, but also to ensure that the language, values and style of your organisation are reflected. 360 that is configured in this way is more likely to be taken up and engaged with than generic 360s that don’t appear to relate to the organisation in any way.
What if I train them and they leave – what if you don’t, and they stay?!
After you have highlighted the areas which matter to your organisation, and run a bespoke 360 feedback assessment to measure how your people’s skills are matching your organisational needs – you can develop the areas in which your people are lacking.
Training is where employee development comes to life. It is grand knowing what specifics they lack but you must do something about it- develop a plan with development goals and then use coaching, mentoring, workshops, conferences, seminars and classes to support employee growth. And of course use 360 Degree Feedback ‘before’ and ‘after’ training, to assess how people have developed and improved.
Using a 360 degree feedback tool for development purposes can help create a positive feedback culture. Invest in your employees regularly by running frequent feedback sessions and continuing to develop them as the company changes and grows.
So the answer to the question ‘What if I train them and they leave?’ is to train them and they’re more likely to stay!
More information
For more information on 360 feedback, please contact us.
Track 360
Track 360 is a online software tool you can customise to your organisation’s unique competencies. To find out how it works, and request a trial, click here.
